Generally there exists a variety of different stacked assemblies and structures in the context of electronics and electronic products.
The motivation behind the integration of electronics and related products may be as diverse as the related use contexts. Relatively often size savings, weight savings, material savings, cost savings, performance gain or just efficient cramming of components is sought for when the resulting solution ultimately exhibits a multilayer nature. In turn, the associated use scenarios may relate to product packages or food casings, visual design of device housings, wearable electronics, personal electronic devices, displays, detectors or sensors, vehicle interiors, antennae, labels, vehicle electronics, etc.
Electronics such as electronic components, ICs (integrated circuit), and conductors, may be generally provided onto a substrate element by a plurality of different techniques. For example, ready-made electronics such as various surface mount devices (SMD) may be mounted on a substrate surface that ultimately forms an inner or outer interface layer of a multilayer structure. Additionally, technologies falling under the term “printed electronics” may be applied to actually produce electronics directly and essentially additively to the associated substrate. The term “printed” refers in this context to various printing techniques capable of producing electronics/electrical elements from the printed matter, including but not limited to screen printing, flexography, and inkjet printing, through a substantially additive printing process. The used substrates may be flexible and printed materials organic, which is however, not always the case.
A substrate may be provided with electronics and overmolded by plastics so as to establish a multilayer structure with the electronics at least partially embedded in the molded layer. Accordingly the electronics may be concealed from the environment and protected against environmental conditions such as moisture, physical shocks, or dust, whereas the molded layer may further have various additional uses in terms of aesthetics, transfer medium, dimensioning, etc.
However, even when a multilayer structure is loaded with various electronics, it may still not always function completely in isolation, i.e. autonomously. Instead, various external power, data and/or control connections may have to be provided thereto, which typically requires provision of electrical connectors and related wiring even though also wireless connections might be applicable as well. In some scenarios, establishing the required physical connections and the layout of connections themselves may turn out rather complex when the target components are located deep within the multilayer structure.
Yet, high level of integration resulting from embedding electronics within a multilayer structure and e.g. insulation properties of related material layers may cause concern having regard to associated thermal management as the encapsulated components could, for example, easily overheat due to reduced cooling such as convection thereof.
Still, in some scenarios the nature of the electronics to be utilized in connection with a multilayer structure, with reference to e.g. light-emitting components, may be such that they easily disturb the functioning or degrade the appearance of the overall structure and/or other embedded elements, considering e.g. light leakage in the context of the aforementioned light-emitting components. Correspondingly, inclusion of certain electronics within a multilayer structure may prevent them from functioning in optimum or even sufficient fashion due to disturbances caused by adjacent or nearby other components or materials.
Still further, some electronic components incorporate moving parts with reference to e.g. electromechanical devices, which utilize electricity for creating the mechanical motion or vice versa. Accordingly, embedding such elements within a multilayer structure, e.g. within solid material layer, may obviously prevent the component from operating, or tedious measures have to be executed for preparing e.g. the necessary internal cavity within the structure to enable sufficient motion of the moving part(s) therein.
Further, in some applications a component such as a sensor just cannot be positioned within e.g. a closed structure to duly perform its intended function requiring interaction with the environment such as measurement of related characteristics.
Ultimately, some components may require so complex layout or generally large space or surface area that their inclusion as embedded components sandwiched between material layers is not particularly feasible in many use scenarios and contexts.